Fram Rejkavik have accepted a bid of £100,000 for their striker Holmbert Aron Fridjonsson, and the youngster was delighted at the chance to move to Glasgow;

“It makes me happy to be told Celtic have reached an agreement with my club. My trials went well in Scotland and Holland but there was a special feeling around the people in Scotland.”

He doesn’t know when he’ll arrive yet, his agent is sorting out personal terms, and security are trying to organise the ceremony when he is presented to a largely disinterested support.

Which is unfortunate.

The lad has scored twelve goals on twenty three games, and should be with Celtic in January. That gives him six months to get bedded in for next season, as opposed to this season when Celtic signed Balde and Pukki to replace Hooper and expected them to fire on all cylinders immediately.

Whatever feelings supporters have toward Fridjonsson, he isn’t to blame for only being a £100,000 striker, and although his arrival may be met with a collective audible groan, we should welcome him to the club, and wish him luck.

Down at the Daily Express, following on from their story that Joe Ledley was going to leave, comes their latest revelation;

Joe Ledley won’t turn his back on Celtic.

According to Adam Matthews, that is;

“Everyone has his fingers crossed that Joe will put pen to paper here.

“I hope he signs again and I’m sure he will. You want all your top players to stay and Joe is one of them. I definitely want him to stay and everyone in the dressing room does because he’s a top lad off the pitch and a great player on it.

“He was very consistent when I played with him at Cardiff and he has carried on from then and got better here every season.”

The Daily Express is available at a newsagent near you, and it will probably still be available at tea time.

Mikael Lustig has revealed he will have surgery on his hip , probably after the Barcelona game, which is roughly when Adam Matthews should be back in the side. Matthews is recovering from a broken collar bone after he was attacked by Keith Lasley, and is still waiting to hear the amount he has been awarded by the criminal injuries compensation board.

Darnell Fisher has just been to the bookies, and put a shiny shilling on him making thirty appearances this season.

Yesterday we had Alan Pardew, Fraser Forsters former boss at Newcastle singing the big mans praises, in what was merely a desperate attempt to stave off criticism for letting the keeper move to Celtic. Incidentally, I’ve worked out  who the Tim was in yesterdays Pardew quote. It was , in fact , a misquote.

” We felt that Tim had the edge ” should have been ” He ( Forster ) felt that being a Tim gave him the edge ( to progress )”

Felt it was worth clarifying.

Anyway, today , Barcelonas Chilean forward Alexis Sanchez has chipped in his tuppence worth;

“Fraser is a keeper who is good with his feet. He is a complete player and it will be difficult to score against him.”

He should know, I guess

Away from tabloid jingoism, there is a decent article in the Guardian about Forster, Celtic and the England team;

Guardian article on forster from which comes this line;

” Even when Alan Pardew once sniped about the standard of football Forster was encountering in Scotland, the Newcastle United manager was being unfair. Forster is subjected to pressure and expectation which affects those clubs for whom trophies are a necessity; therefore Celtic, and not Newcastle. ”

It also mentions Champions League experience, which is actually surprisingly uncommon in the England squad. Which shouldn’t be a surprise considering the huge influx of foreign players to their league. Forster has to make a name for himself, and become Englands top goalie. Then he can complete his mission next summer.

Elsewhere, theres bad news as John Lewis have decided to go with the bear and rabbit idea for their Christmas advert, instead of my idea where a bloke  forgets to defrost the turkey, shouts at the kids and stares wistfully at a fading image of a pub, which is where he really wants to be on christmas day. Far more realistic, but it apparently didn’t project the image they were looking for.

Thats the trouble with advertising these days, all those open necked shirts have allowed their common sense to sneak out.

Meanwhile, Tony Watt, remember him ?, has been sent home from training again, and perhaps when gets sent home for real he will realise that all he has to do is knuckle down and he will have a future at Celtic, he just needs to realise that success is only achieved with hard work.

That red card was actually replaced with a yellow on appeal-the “victim” overdid his reaction- but it is from the Record.

A little piece of history begins to disappear today when demolition work begins on the old school at the front of Celtic Park. The clubs website said;

“The Ticket Office has already been relocated in the first phase of the development and the next stage of the project, which begins this Wednesday, November 13, will require the closure of Kerrydale Street.

“The new Ticket Office is situated behind the Celtic Superstore and both buildings can be accessed from Davaar Street while the main door at Celtic Park can now be approached by car via Janefield Street after turning in from Springfield Road.

“The first home match when restrictions will be in place is against Aberdeen on November 23. The club apologises for any inconvenience while the work is undertaken.”

Everything changes…

Last word goes to old pal Keith Jackson-

Rebel Paul Murray wants to know who is running Rangers as spectre of Craig Whyte continues to haunt Ibrox

If only he knew a decent journalist who could maybe do some digging for him….

Yesterdays question concerned the 2-0 win over Vojvodina back in 1967, in which the Celts wore an all green change strip in a home game, which was unusual. Actually, according to the Celtic wiki, there were a few strange things that night.

• Celtic played in an all green change strip.
• First time Celtic win a tie in Europe after losing the first leg.
• Stein refuses to allow Vojvodina to play on the Parkhead pitch 24 before kick off due to concerns about the condition of the pitch.
• Chalmers plays though only 70% fit due to the absence of McBride and Wallace.
• If the tie had finished level then a third game would have taken place in Rotterdam.
• Jock Stein had called for a ‘special effort’ by the Celtic fans to inspire the team.
• Kick off was at 8pm.
• 75,000 tickets said to have been sold in advance.
• The referee, Mr Carlsson from Sweden, only had one hand.
• McNeill’s last minute goal was the most dramatic ever scored at Celtic Park and saw Celtic through to the semi finals.

Today, we go back further, to this game. Why was this game  always going to be difficult ?